Pleasanton Weekly

Home sales down in state, but getting better

Year-to-year sales up for 7th straight month

Pending home sales in California fell in November but were up from the previous year for the seventh consecutive month.

Additionally, the California Association of Realtors reported that distressed home sales dropped in November from both the previous month and year.

Pending home sales

California pending home sales fell 9.1% in November but were up from a year ago, according to CAR's Pending Home Sales Index. The index was 109.8 in November, based on contracts signed in that month, down from October's index of a revised 120.9. However, the index was up 11% from November 2010, marking the seventh consecutive month that pending sales rose from the previous year.

Pending home sales are forward-looking indicators of future home sales activity, providing information on the future direction of the market.

"The strong year-over-year growth in pending sales observed in the last several months suggests we should see an increase in December's closed sales over the same month last year," said CAR President LeFrancis Arnold.

Distressed housing market data

* At 55.1%, equity sales made up more than half of home sales in November, up from 53.9% in October and 54.4% in November 2010.

* The total share of all distressed property types sold statewide fell to 44.9% in November, down from October's 46.1% and 45.6% in November 2010.

* Of the distressed properties sold statewide in November, 21% were short sales, up slightly from the previous month's share of 20.7% and up from last November's share of 19%.

At 23.5%, the share of REO sales was down from October's 24.9%, and down from the 26.2% reported in November 2010.

This story contains 249 words.

If you are a paid subscriber, check to make sure you have
logged in.
Otherwise our system cannot recognize you as having full free access to our site.

If you are a paid print subscriber and haven't yet set up an online account,
click here
to get your online account activated.